The two accused allegedly committed the crime after offering liquor to the 44-year-old woman who was visiting the Mata Amritanandamayi Ashram in Kollam.
The woman was on the beach when the men approached her and offered her a drink. (Creative Commons)
A US woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by two men near a beach at Parayakadavu in Kerala’s Kollam district on Monday, 31 July.
The two men, identified as Jayan, 39, and Nikhil, 27, of Cheriazheekal, have been arrested, the police said.
The survivor had arrived at the Mata Amritanandamayi Ashram at Parayakadavu near Karunagappally on 22 July. On Monday, she was sitting at the beach alone when the two men approached her.
The police said the men initially offered the 44-year-old woman a cigarette, which she declined. However, the woman agreed to have a drink with them. Once she was under the influence, they took her on a two-wheeler to a vacant house.
Investigators said the trio again had drinks until the woman passed out. Once she fell unconscious, the men took turns assaulting her, the survivor told the police in her complaint.
After regaining consciousness, she returned to the ashram and reported the incident to the authorities, who alerted the local police. The accused were arrested on Tuesday, 1 August.
The police said further information could be gathered only after interrogating the two men.
The incident brought back memories of the murder of a 33-year-old Latvian woman, who had gone missing on 14 March 2018. Her body — putrefied and decapitated — was found hanging over a branch with its feet touching the ground in a mangrove forest near Panathura in the neighbourhood of the famed Kovalam beach.
Further investigation led to the arrest of Udayan, an illegal tourist guide, and his friend Umesh, a drug peddler.
Udayan had earlier found the woman alone on the beach and befriended her, promising to take her to places of interest around Kovalam. He then took her to the mangrove forest in his fibre boat.
Umesh joined them in the mangrove forest, where the two men raped the woman after drugging her.
On regaining consciousness, she realised what had happened and screamed at the men. Fearing that she would alert the police, Udayan and Umesh strangulated her. To make her death look like a suicide, they hung the body from a branch.
On 6 December 2022, the Additional District Sessions Court in Thiruvananthapuram sentenced the men to life imprisonment without remission or commutation till their death.
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